Cow Chips: Can't Drive a Cow to Water, But You Can Lead It There

When we first put the Panguitch Cows in the Ivins field they did not know where to get water. They were being a little skittish and would not leave the south east corner of the field, the corner farthest away from the roads on the east and north. The problem was that the water tank was against the west fence. This is where the hose bib used to fill the tank was at. After leaving the cows in the field for a day we tried unsuccessfully to drive the cows over to where the water tank was at.

There were three cows in particular that would not cooperate and would lead the herd away from where we wanted them to go back to the corner where they had been. I was trying to herd them on foot and dad would drive along in the pickup. The cows would go in the right direction until they reached about the half way mark, then the three ornery cows would lead the rest right back to where they had come from. This caused me a lot of running and yelling and caused dad to try and chase them down with the pickup honking and swearing. I am certain that anyone watching the whole thing was getting a good laugh. After multiple attempts we decided to leave them alone and let them get a little thirstier before we tried again.

The next morning we changed our strategy. We loaded a 500 gallon water tank into the back of dad’s truck full of water. When we pulled into the field the cows were thirsty and ready for a drink. We opened the valve on the tank and let the water start to run out. This got the cow’s attention and they came over and proceeded to fight over the water coming out of the tank. Dad simply drove the truck across the field with the water running out right up next to the overflowing water tank. Once the cows found the water tank we did not have to try to get them to go water, they would go on their own when they were thirsty.